Wood Grips for Umarex Luger?

[Snake45]

I have the Umarex blowback P.08 and am thinking it would look even better with checkered wood grips. Sarco offers repro checkered wood grips for the real Luger at just $20, which sounds like a screamin' deal. Will they fit the Umarex? Has anyone here ever tried it?

 

[Moog]

I have an Umarex 1911 and heard that you can use real 1911 wood grips on the Umarex but you would have to modify them to fit. I never tried to do it I just took the easy way. Brown spray paint!

 

[nickap91]

I have the non-blowback Umarex P.08, and after looking at a bunch of wood grips, I realized that none would fit without major alterations. So I also went with the paint route - but in addition to paint, I also used alcohol ink, which you can use to give a really decent wood grain appearance. Here's the process:
-- get a set of brown alcohol inks - I used these ones on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QV613ZX
-- remove the grips and spray them with a light tan or beige spray paint for a base coat. I used Krylon "sand" colored paint.
-- once the paint is dry, take the lightest colored of the alcohol inks, and put some drops on a paintbrush (a cheap house paint type brush is fine). Wipe the brush over the grips in an up-down direction. Repeat with increasingly darker colored inks, keeping all brush strokes in the same direction. Don't try to cover completely, you want some of all the colors to show through.
-- give the alcohol a little time to dry, then spray on a couple of coats of clear Krylon Kamar varnish.
That's it! The photo below shows the finished result. Compare with these real wood grips on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/warreplica-German-Luger-Pistol-Wooden/dp/B00NHNLJRU

 

[Snake45]

Nickap91, thanks for your very detailed and excellent reply! Your gun looks GREAT!

After posting the question last year and not receiving any useful answer, I went ahead and ordered the repro wood grips from SARCO. As I suspected, they are not a direct bolt-on fit, but it looks like they will work with a little modification. I have over a half-century of experience in model-building and gunsmithing, so I have the SKILLS and the TOOLS to make them work, I just haven't yet found the TIME to get it done. But God willing, someday I will.

I know from experience with the Air Venturi/Springfield Armory M1 Carbine that no matter how good plastic can be made to LOOK, it will never FEEL like real wood, I went to not-inconsiderable expense and effort to retrofit the M1 with the available replacement wood stock, and though the wood stock doesn't LOOK as nice as the plastic, it now FEELS the way I wanted it to.

I also replaced the nice plastic grips on my Umarex/Springfield Armory 1911 Mil-Spec with real wood, and that was also an improvement. They had to be modified, but that was a quick and easy job compared to the Luger.

I do appreciate your detailed reply, and might try that for the plastic on my Umarex M1A1 Thompson at some point. I've looked and "real wood" replacement furniture for that doesn't seem to be available. The plastic on that one does feel a little better than the smooth plastic on the M1 carbine, at least.

Thanks again for your reply, I DO appreciate it!

 

[Northwoods22]

I have the blowback Umarex Legends Luger. Tried fitting grips from one of my real Lugers on it, and it will take some serious thinning out in certain areas to make them fit properly. As you've seen, the overall frame dimensions and grip screw locations are slightly different as well. Not saying it cannot be done, but it will take some delicate work to pull it off. If the Sarco replica grips are slightly thicker than stock, that would really help.

I'm a retired gunsmith, and a scale modeler as well. I'm going to go the paint route with mine. I've had good results simulating walnut with airbrushed Tamiya acrylics, and an oil-paint based wash followed by a semi-gloss clearcoat.

If you can pull off the real wood grip mods, by all means take pics and show how you did it.

 

[Northwoods22]

I have the non-blowback Umarex P.08, and after looking at a bunch of wood grips, I realized that none would fit without major alterations. So I also went with the paint route - but in addition to paint, I also used alcohol ink, which you can use to give a really decent wood grain appearance. Here's the process:
-- get a set of brown alcohol inks - I used these ones on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QV613ZX
-- remove the grips and spray them with a light tan or beige spray paint for a base coat. I used Krylon "sand" colored paint.
-- once the paint is dry, take the lightest colored of the alcohol inks, and put some drops on a paintbrush (a cheap house paint type brush is fine). Wipe the brush over the grips in an up-down direction. Repeat with increasingly darker colored inks, keeping all brush strokes in the same direction. Don't try to cover completely, you want some of all the colors to show through.
-- give the alcohol a little time to dry, then spray on a couple of coats of clear Krylon Kamar varnish.
That's it! The photo below shows the finished result. Compare with these real wood grips on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/warreplica-German-Luger-Pistol-Wooden/dp/B00NHNLJRU

View attachment 421756

That looks great. Nice work.